text: The Takahashi Taxol total synthesis published by Takashi Takahashi in 2006 is one of several methods in taxol total synthesis. The method starts from geraniol and differs from the other 6 published methods that it is a formal synthesis (the final product is baccatin III which lacks the amide tail found in taxol itself) and that it is racemic (the product baccatin III is optically inactive). A key feature of the published procedure is that several synthetic steps (construction of rings A, B and C) were performed in an automated synthesizer on a scale up to 300 gram and that purification steps were also automated.